Telford man admits to charges connected with standoff with police

COURTHOUSE — A Telford man has pleaded guilty to assault- and weapons-related charges in connection with a standoff with police during which shots were fired.

Emilio J. Sciortino Jr., 22, of the first block of Indian Valley Lane, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Thursday to charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, persons not to possess a firearm and conspiracy to unlawfully acquire a firearm in connection with the January 2012 incident at his home.

Judge Joseph A. Smyth deferred sentencing so that court officials can complete a background investigative report about Sciortino and so Sciortino can undergo a psychological evaluation.

He faces a possible maximum sentence of 29 to 58 years in prison on the charges when he’s sentenced later this year. Prosecutors also could seek a mandatory five-year prison term against Sciortino because the incident involved a firearm.

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Sciortino remains in the county jail without bail pending sentencing.

By pleading guilty to the charges, Sciortino admitted that he knowingly or recklessly, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, attempted to cause bodily injury to a Telford police officer and a woman inside his home at the time he fired shots from a hunting rifle during the domestic disturbance.

“He was under some incredible pressure and strain at the time that will be disclosed at the time of sentencing and was reacting to a number of the circumstances going on in his life and in his personal history that will be made clear to the court at time of sentencing,” Nester said.

“We think the evidence shows this is more recklessness on his part rather than a direct intent to fire at the police officers. We believe he was acting more recklessly than intentionally to harm anybody,” Nester added.

Nester claimed Sciortino is remorseful.

“Mr. Sciortino accepted responsibility for what he did. He is extremely remorseful and that remorse will be abundantly clear at the sentencing hearing,” Nester said.

An investigation began about 1:40 p.m. Jan. 10, 2012, when Telford police responded to Sciortino’s home after receiving a report from a resident of the home that Sciortino had taken a woman visiting the home hostage in his bedroom, according to the criminal complaint.

“The caller was frantic, reporting that the defendant had armed himself with a loaded rifle,” Telford Detective Daniel Fox and police officer Jeremy Kim wrote in the arrest affidavit.

As police surrounded the home they heard four shots fired from inside the home, all exiting a second-floor window, according to court papers.

“The defendant said that the shots were a warning to the police, and that he, the defendant, had a police scanner in his room,” Fox and Kim wrote in the criminal complaint.

After negotiating with police for several minutes, Sciortino agreed to surrender at 2:15 p.m. and released the woman, who also had been in the home with him, court documents indicate.

During a subsequent interview with police, Sciortino said he and the woman had been arguing when he fired a .30-30 caliber Marlin lever action rifle through his bedroom door as warning shots to police, according to the criminal complaint. Police alleged Sciortino also had a shotgun and a .30-06 rifle he received from a friend in his possession at the time of the incident.

That friend, Samuel C. Sofia, 36, of the 300 block of Kimberwick Court, Telford, is still awaiting trial on charges he allegedly bought the rifle for Sciortino, who was not permitted to own the firearm.

Sofia has pleaded not guilty to charges of providing false information during a firearms purchase, firearms sales to ineligible transferee and conspiracy in connection with alleged incidents that occurred between August 2011 and January 2012.

With the charges, police alleged Sofia purchased the Savage Axis bolt action rifle in caliber .30-06 on Aug. 18, 2011, from a Bucks County gun dealer, and that it was the same type of gun that Sciortino had attempted to purchase two days prior at a Montgomery County gun shop but was turned down because he is ineligible to possess a firearm.